History
Six-digit sort codes were introduced in a staggered process during the 1960s as the banking industry moved towards automation. Prior to this and to facilitate the manual processing of cheques branches were allocated a 'national code' which would comprise anything between three and five digits. These took the following form:
The bank itself would be allocated a main number; Lloyds Bank for example was allocated 3, National Provincial was allocated 5, Martins was allocated 11.
Main clearing branches (usually elite London branches) would bear only one digit after the main number, e.g. 11. Metropolitan branches (which covered Greater London) consisted of two digits after the main number, e.g. 11. Country branches made up the rest of the country, and bear three digits after the main number, e.g. 11. They were displayed on cheques in this fashion, with the bank identifier taking precedence.
To facilitate the move to a six-digit-structure the national codes were retained but where a single-digit was used to identify the bank a two-digit number was introduced, e.g. Barclays branches went from 2 to 20, Midland from 4 to 40, etc.
Read more about this topic: Sort Code
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of our era is the nauseating and repulsive history of the crucifixion of the procreative body for the glorification of the spirit.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.”
—Ben C. Bradlee (b. 1921)
“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)